The conference will be opened with a speech by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran's President.

The address by Ahmadinejad, who has previously described the Holocaust as a myth and called for Israel to be "wiped off the map", will coincide with the 120th anniversary of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler's birth.

Daniel Ayalon, Israel's deputy minister of foreign affairs, called on Britain to boycott the conference. "We call on all democratic nations not to attend this conference," he said.

But Britain has ignored diplomatic pressure and announced that a delegation headed by Peter Gooderham, British ambassador to the UN in Geneva, would be present.

"It's still our intention to attend," said a Foreign Office spokesman. "We're watching how things develop."

In a further sign of divisions within the European Union, France said that it was sending a delegate.

The UN meeting, hosted in Geneva, will review global efforts to fight racism since the first World Conference Against Racism held in South Africa in 2001.

American and Israeli diplomats walked out the original "Durban I" talks because of attempts by some Arab countries to link Zionism and Israel to racism, a dispute that has continued to dog UN diplomatic attempts to agree a global anti-racism communiqué.

"Durban II, like its predecessor, will go down in infamy and will massively deviate from its original purpose," said Mr Ayalon.

The World Jewish Congress accused Britain of failing to learn lessons from the past after failed efforts by David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, to "put pressure" on the UN to avoid a "rerun of Durban I".

Michael Thaidigsmann, a congress spokesman, said: "We are disappointed that Britain is going attend when the US, Australia, Italy and the Netherlands have refused. It shows that people do not learn lessons."

Shimon Samuels, Director for International Relations at the Simon Wiesenthal Centre Europe, urged Britain to at least "stand up and walk out when Ahmadinejad begins to speak".

"If they're staying, then in that case they should actively take a role regarding Ahmadinejad. Ahmadinejad uses the language of Hitler," he said.

Maxime Verhagen, the Dutch foreign minister, said on Sunday that his country would boycott over draft UN statements that were "grim" and "unacceptable".

"The anti-racism conference is too important to abuse for political goals and attacks on the West," he said. "The Netherlands will not be a part of it."

Holland is particularly concerned that some Muslim countries are using the event to restrict free speech by protecting the Islamic religion.

Australia also joined the growing Western boycott with Stephen Smith, foreign minister, issuing a statement condemning the meeting.

He said: "Regrettably, we cannot be confident that the conference will not again be used as a platform to air offensive views, including anti-Semitic view."

New Zealand also joined the boycott because it risked becoming a "rancorous and unproductive debate," Foreign Minister Murray McCully.

Mr McCully said the World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa, seven years ago was extremely contentious.

"It gave rise to expressions of anti-Israeli views which undermined its focus on genuine anti-racism initiatives."

European Union diplomats were meeting late last night in a last-minute attempt to thrash out a common line on the meeting.

"I think there will not be a common position, some countries will boycott, some will attend, some on a higher level than others," said a diplomat.

Navi Pillay, the UN's human rights chief, said she was "deeply disappointed" by the boycott.

Ms Pillay said: "A handful of states have permitted one of two issues to dominate their approach to this issue, allowing them to outweigh the concerns of numerous groups of people that suffer racism and similar forms of intolerence."